When Cody Bollinger was finished training and preparing for his first professional MMA fight in the U.S., there was one last detail to set up.

He needed a ride.

Just 15 years old at the time, Bollinger was beginning an MMA career that followed plenty of gym time since beginning tae kwon do workouts at age 3. So, he couldn’t drive himself.

“My dad took me,” Bollinger told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) with a laugh. “He went to the weigh-ins, stayed in the hotel, helped me do everything I needed to do.”

Pretty much since, Bollinger has been handling his own business. The 12-2 Californian, who has won four straight fights, will take on UFC veteran Din Thomas (25-8) for the Pure MMA featherweight title next Saturday in Plains, Pa., continuing a career that built him into a 14-fight veteran by the time he was legally allowed to drink alcohol.

Raised in a desert area of California and trained with a career of tae kwon do, wrestling and pankration, the 21-year-old Bollinger thinks his situation is close to becoming more of the rule than the exception. With the sport’s growing popularity, he feels, more fighters will begin training at younger ages and look to enter professional fights for exposure.

It worked for Bollinger, who started his career in 2006 with two fights in Costa Rica. He went on to win his first six fights, doing it mostly late in the school year or in the summer while breaking from his wrestling career.

While also growing an interest in restoring cars in his spare time, Bollinger continued to win. His next chance comes against a UFC veteran looking to make his own move.

“He’s saying he wants to get back in the UFC, and the fact that he hasn’t fought in two years means he’ll be ready,” Bollinger said. “But I’ll be ready too.”

Out in the desert

Bollinger is a native Californian, and by first grade his family decided to move to a remote part of the state, a town called Phelan.

“It’s the high desert,” he said. “Think of the desert, Joshua trees as far as you can see, smaller town. That’s what it was like.”

But by then, he was already active in combat sports. Bollinger’s father first enrolled him in tae kwon do lessons at age 3. He began wrestling about a year later, and that became the sport he focused on in high school and into a college career.

Bollinger’s father didn’t himself have a history in contact sports, but he thought it would be good for his son.

“He knew some people he trusted who thought it would be a good idea,” Bollinger said. “I kind of moved into grappling and then MMA and just got in that world.”

Bollinger’s father eventually opened his own gym with a partner, which allowed his son even more access to training. The biggest benefit, Bollinger said, was being around more experienced grapplers and fighters and training with him, which was a big help when he eventually started his career young.

He began his youth wrestling career with several strong runs in the kids’ state tournament. He also competed in freestyle wrestling, in which he was a state champion, and Greco-Roman wrestling, where he had success.

Bollinger attended two schools after high school to continue wrestling, but by then he already had a burgeoning MMA career to think about.

“It was different for me than it was for a lot of my buddies,” he said. “There was no real off part of the year, which is how I liked it.”

A young fighter

So there was Bollinger, all 15 years of him, preparing for his MMA debut in the U.S. at an August 2006 King of the Cage show in San Jacinto, Calif. His opponent was 21, but Bollinger had been training with older men his entire life.

His TKO win in just 50 seconds was the first of five straight KOTC appearances for Bollinger. He credits his father’s help and encouragement for preparing him to start early, even if that route might not work for every fighter.

“It worked for me, and I’ve loved it,” he said. “If you could get paid to wrestle, to be honest, I would probably still be wrestling. But this was an option for me, and I took it.

“I see a lot of kids who would want to be doing other things, but their dads are forcing them into training. That didn’t happen with me, which is why I think I’m enjoying it so much. In the next generation, everyone will be like me, starting that early.”

The question is, can they start with the same success? By September 2011, Bollinger defeated Cameron Dollar as the main event of a C3 Fights show in Oklahoma. He won again in December, topping Aaron Neveu in a Gladiator Challenge fight to improve to 12-2.

He has continued to receive help from his father, but now more as a scout than a teacher.

“He does so much homework on everyone out there,” Bollinger said. “He knows stuff my coaches and I don’t know, so it’s kind of like having another coach, but he’s more of a dad now.”

A dad who will watch Bollinger take on one of his most notable opponents yet. A win would provide a new career highlight, Bollinger said, and hopefully more exposure.

“I have a chance to show people I’m legit,” he said. “That’s why this is a big fight for me.”

Award-winning newspaper reporter Kyle Nagel is the lead features
writer for MMAjunkie.com. His weekly “Fight Path” column focuses on the
circumstances that led fighters to a profession in MMA. Know a fighter
with an interesting story? Email us at news [at] mmajunkie.com.

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